Aria of Fate Extra Side
by k2m2
Summary: Side stories of the crossover, Aria of Fate. The stories here are depicted in the POV of the other characters rather than Kitiro and Shirou. Take note that preceding chapters are not in chronological order. eg. Argo I, Rin I, Argo II, Shion I, etc. Have fun and enjoy the other side of the story for Aria of Fate!


Disclaimer Notice:

I don't own any of the original materials used & published by the franchise on this material.

_k2m2 presents:_  
**Aria of Fate ~Extra Side~** -A Fate/stay night and Sword Art Online Crossover

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**Argo I: The Wolf, the Fox and the Judge**

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-Chapter Start-

August 19, 2024, 07:20a.m. That was the day the incident with the «Laughing Coffin» happened and was also the day I met with the rumored «White Swordsman».

The «Laughing Coffin» incident, a day where the most number of player casualties of more than thirty happened in a single day in SAO history.

The PK guild Laughing Coffin was born at the first month of this year. They were cruel and ruthless to fellow players and didn't care about anything except how to entertain themselves by killing others. No one could find their location until a detractor who was too guilt ridden confessed the location of their base somewhere on the edge of the 20th floor.

Of course that's how the story goes but there's more to it than what you think.

I don't mean to boast but I was the one who discovered their base and revealed it to the guilds. I did have to go through several hardships of gathering info through interrogations and pain staking research until the fruits of my labor were able to pinpoint where their base was.

The fear of the majority of players against these PK group had spread all throughout Aincrad. Many players had fell victim from their traps until the time to call every top guild concerned was voiced out. Even some of the solo players I knew had attended the concern.

I myself didn't like how these guys disregard the importance of life for their own enjoyment so I helped, although secretly, in my own way in putting a stop to their immoral actions.

By adding up all the data I've gathered regarding the infamous red guild, I was able to confirm by «Hiding» myself near a pathway of a specific location until I saw several orange players walk in and out of a medium sized house found within a «Safe Zone» in the dungeons of the 20th floor.

After confirming the validity of the information, I placed a copy of the map with a marker and other necessary information on a crystal and gave it directly to the leaders of the strongest guilds in SAO. In exchange for the information, I asked for them to give false information on how they received the information.

I cover my tracks by leaving misleading information and had turned it to a practice since the useful information of what a beta player had had ended around the 14th floor. And since then, the life of an info broker had us to double our efforts, causing a few of my business rivals to surrender and move on to other jobs they could find.

I also knew that there would be speculations of who sent the information and considered it a trap but having their leader say that it's from a reliable source pretty much ended the discussion.

Those said guilds who received the tip-off finally decided to have a secret meeting between guilds and everything after that were all arguments and strategies on how to handle the situation.

After much debate, they all finally decided to first have negotiations with the red guild before anything else. To ensure that if things do go wrong, they would all go together summing up of over fifty players to increase their chances of successfully suppressing them and furthermore increase their own survival rate.

One of the players jokingly called their mission a crusade to subdue the labeled 'rouge players'. Although calling it a crusade did help increase the morale of everyone in the group.

When the 'crusade' that was led by several major guilds to personally negotiate with the red guild, I would normally observe from a distance to gather more information and add this event in the headlines of my news article.

But unfortunately, that wasn't what I planned for that day.

The reason was simple. I didn't want to risk blowing my cover for giving away the information of the red guild's base.

While the negotiations would take place, I went to hide myself in the recently cleared 62nd floor's, «Mist Garden of Versail» dungeon.

It's called a forest but to better describe it, it's a foggy hedge walled maze named after the «Labyrinth of Versailles» but the design was more similar to the one described in one of the Harry Potter books I've previously read.

Well, the place certainly is bigger than the one described in the book but there were a lot more monsters here and of course doesn't have any evil power-hungry magic wielding nutcase.

Even though this was a hedged maze, the pathways were wider than what everyone thinks. Because of the fog enveloping most of the ground and the straight but messy hedges around you, you'd be easily tricked that this was a narrow path meant for only at least a single person.

Apart from the similarities in the book, here I knew of an inn that was in another town located at the far northern part of the map near the floor's boss dungeon. It was then, that I realized that that was the greatest mistake I made in my life here in SAO.

I decided to enter the said floor from the default town you'd first end up in and exit through the city borders instead of teleporting there directly to confuse stalkers that followed me. It was kind of a routine I normally use whenever I finished my work for the day.

While walking around the green covered maze I memorized for the guide book I made for this floor before, I felt that I was being followed by some players. It was partly thanks to my «Tracking» skill but since it mostly provides senses against monsters I mostly had to rely from my experience as an information broker.

I may say experience from being one but it's just my gut's senses trying to tell me if there were any players that are well within distance.

There's no telling who is actually tailing me so I allowed them to follow me without having these people realize I noticed them. I cautiously but strategically turned around corner after corner to get a glimpse of who is trying to tail me but I noticed shortly after that these people kept their distance from me while being out of sight whenever I looked back.

I felt that they were acting too suspiciously for them to simply be players lost in this maze. I thought hard as to why these people would try and tail me until I remembered one very important factor that's happening today.

"The crusade..." I whispered to myself silently, remembering that today was when something very important would happen.

Did the crusade not end well? No. Did they send some members of their guild to deal with me? How? Other than indirectly giving away their location, from what my surveillance has gathered, I double checked that today they had all their members in their home base.

I was now in panic and dropped a sweat of dread while I hastened my steps. I was hoping that I was just mistaken so I decided to wipe away my fears by having them reveal themselves. I stopped before a corner and turned back to the direction of my stalkers. I raised my hooded head slightly, revealing my whisker painted face and auburn colored eyes that were covered from my bushy brown hair.

I readied myself and decided to end this quickly to ward of my doubts.

"Show yourselves! I know you're following me!" I shouted in a deeper tone of voice compared to my usual sharp voiced front I show to others.

What answered me was silence. The presence of something was still there so I wasn't convinced that it was just my imagination. While the silence grew with the fog, I waited cautiously until I heard someone clapping their hands slowly.

A man wearing a hooded poncho that covered his face walked out from the cross-shaped pathway I came from before a few good meters in front of me. He clapped and clapped his hands while I was suddenly paralyzed in fear when I came to recognize who this person was.

"You did quite well Ms. Rat. To think you found our main base easily that's hidden at the far reaches of the 20th floor's map." The hooded man slowly walked at the center of the pathway clapping his hands accompanied with an evil grin as he continued his speech.

"Bravo I tell you. Bra-vo." He shook his head in amusement and suddenly stopped his applause. "But do you seriously think you had outsmarted us? Of course we had infiltrators for almost every major guild out there. So we'd know what their plans would be and of course, just from whom the information would come from. We even know that that bastard Black Swordsman would join in with them to greet us too."

"Y-you don't mean..." I stuttered in fear at the obvious hint this red player just revealed to me.

"Yes! We knew they were coming so I hope they're ready for it!" His grin grew even wider. Before he continued, I heard several footsteps coming from the direction where the player in front of me previously hid.

The footsteps came to a halt when everyone revealed themselves behind the hooded player. There were only a few of them. Including the leader, I counted that there were seven of them in total, enough people to form a raid party but that wasn't the important part.

I could clearly distinguish with everyone's emblem that there were at least two from each known guild. There were two from the «Divine Dragon Alliance», two from the «Knights of the Blood», one from the «Aincrad Liberation Force» and the last two including their leader, are from the «Laughing Coffin» themselves.

I clicked my tongue not from the appearance of very strong players but at their colored cursors. They were all still in the color green. I wouldn't have any problems in countering their attacks while running away if they were orange players, but if I directly attack them while they were green, my cursor would change to orange by the system and that would turn the tables on me.

"Hihihi... I guess we're not lucky enough that the other bastard, White Swordsman or whoever he is didn't join them." One of the players from DDA snickered while he mentioned another player's nickname.

"White Swordsman...?" I remembered that there was an ongoing rumor about a certain player with ridiculous abilities.

It's said that he wears a hooded coat, uses lots of swords simultaneously that he leaves a mess of them after he's done, doesn't use skills in most of his fights but uses what people think is thought to be a «Unique Skill» when the situation calls for it.

It sounds so ridiculous that I didn't think he would be considered trouble among the red guilds especially this one.

"Hmmm... I don't think we should underestimate that guy. Some of our guys said he's a party crasher and sent a group of our previous members by himself to the «Black Iron Castle» without actually killing any of them." The leader responded in a sheepish way and sighed after some thought.

"Well then, forgetting the white guy, I guess it's our turn to have some fun..." The acclaimed leader instantly brought out a weapon different from the usual «Mate Chopper» he carried before. The poncho wearing player had noticed my reaction to his drawn weapon and decided to entertain my question with a smile.

"Oh this? I just recently got it from a rare monster drop. I picked this weapon especially for this very occasion. Now to start the celebrations... _it's showtime!"_

There it was, the red player's infamous catchphrase. There was no one else who uses that freely when they're about to kill someone except the known leader of the infamous red guild, «PoH».

As soon as he finished his speech, everyone unsheathed their weapons but what I was most scared of was their leader's weapon. His tomahawk shaped dagger called «Bardalph Phantom Blade» was a monster drop that could only be acquired through a difficult quest in the 60th floor. But what was most fearful was that weapon's terrifying effect.

The weapon didn't have any paralysis effects but rather the high critical rate it possesses can stun you for an extended period of time. Due to the shape of the weapon, it was also a very effective throwing weapon. And to match it up with his agility and unorthodox styled fighting skills, he was considered to be among the strongest dagger using players in all of SAO.

After remembering PoH's infamy, in an instant after the red leader's cursed words, a player from the KoB threw a short spear that glowed yellow from the system assist towards me. I instinctively dodged the oncoming attack and had barely scraped my painted cheek.

I noticed shortly that the one who threw the spear had a violet message appear in front of him and changed his cursor to orange. I then attempted to dash to the sharp corner behind me but before I realized it, the DDA member was able to get in close enough to launch an attack.

It was a good thing my build was AGI type, so I was able to bring out my favored weapon, the +25 «Hurit-Kimi Edge» and block his attack. Ignoring the purple warning screen and the color change of his cursor, I kicked him to the side and ran through the sharp corner I planned to run through earlier while several other attacks from the other members had grazed my coat.

I ran through the pathway making a lot of sharp turns. The most annoying part of this dungeon was that monsters can easily pass through some of the leaf hedged walls here to attack you when you least expect it.

There are several ways to survive through this maze against monsters. One of the most common is to have a high enough level of tracking skill or hiding skill. Hiding can help lessen the chances for ambushes but the tracking skill is the most advised due to some of the monsters here that concentrates on their «senses».

There are also several ways to defend yourself against ambushes from monsters. Like jumping over the hedges to avoid surprise attacks but that would only attract more monsters and gang up on you especially the ones similar to a chameleon.

The chameleon-like things are one of the low leveled monsters here and are easy to defeat if it's a one on one fight. The bad thing was they come in great numbers when attacking. For stat builds that relies on heavy defense, it's no problem but for ones that rely on their lightweight armor for speed, …

I'd rather not think about the uncountable number of slimy elastic tongues with the speed of a rocket, suddenly sticking to you in every direction.

So the best trick for people like me here was to keep low and imitate the monsters by passing through the hedges.

While I dashed right and left while avoiding the monsters in certain locations inside this green maze, I could clearly hear the shouting and running of players behind me and one other from the wall on my left side. I'm guessing they have the tracking skill as well. Hiding right now wouldn't really work so I anticipated the movement from the one on the left with my own tracking skill's senses instead before he could make the jump on me.

I then made a sharp turn and jumped through the penetrable green wall on my right before hearing someone jumping out of from the hedges with a yell.

I didn't stop there yet.

I instantly jumped to the next hedge in front of me and ran as fast as I could. I could clearly hear the multiple rustling sounds of leaves over the walls that followed behind me.

"Kyahh. I guess their tacking skills are high enough to sense me." I voiced out with my exhausted shrill voice in irritation.

I continued to run as quickly as I could until I could barely hear the group of rustling leaves. I continued to run until I ended up in a pathway with impassable thickly branched hedges. Before reaching for my next checkpoint, I instantly sensed a new presence as I saw someone's shadow moving around at the next corner where there should be more passable hedges.

They didn't give me any chances to take out a «Teleport Crystal» yet and bringing it out while being chased was way too risky at the moment. I could stall one of them but it would have me possibly end up in a one-on-one fight with one of them, which I don't have the time to do so.

I quickly decided to 'bump' his side instead so I can barely escape the crime prevention code's response, 'accidently' tripping him from imbalance and head through the next passing.

The player noticed my incoming presence and stood still at the corner I'm about to take. I assume he is getting ready for me so I readied myself and pushed my feet harder to initiate my readied tactics.

"W-whoaa?!"

I ignored his supposed warning that sounded like a yelp while I made the sharp turn and continued, not slowing down my movements.

BAM!

"Uwa-eeee?!"

Unfortunately, it was me who made the weird shout and tripped forward while the guy had his bottom hit the ground. I noticed momentarily that the player who tripped from my force was garbed in a red coat with a hood on. Apparently the guy's stat build was a lot bigger than mine so I couldn't use the complete momentum of my strengthened speed.

I continued to stumble forward until I was a few feet away from the player colored in red. I noticed that a tiny bit of my HP went down. While I recovered myself remembering that there was no actual pain, I pointed my «Hurit-Kimi Edge» at the downed player.

"Ittatta..." The player whom I just ran into had his back facing me and was now slowly recovering himself and stood up. I slowly did the same and this time pointing out my dagger to him completely in a crouching stance.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry if I interrupted you since it looked like you're in a hurry." He asked while he patted his coat to dust off the dirt which was unnecessarily by reflex.

"Eh?" I was surprised for a moment with his question but instantly went back on guard, dismissing his supposed kindness.

"Um, I'm sorry but did I do something wrong?" The player asked me again if I was fine rather than worrying about himself first so I was caught off guard and lowered my weapon slowly.

"Oi, so you aren't with _them?_" I asked with a little caution in my voice.

The stranger in front of me tilted his head in confusion. "Them? Uh, what are you talking about?"

Before we could clear things up, rustling and shouting in the distance could be heard. I could clearly hear the group that was chasing me before, closing in and had to think quickly. The player in front of me noticed this and looked to the direction where it was coming from.

It was clear this person wasn't with the red guild and was just at the wrong place at the wrong time but I was in a hurry and decided to give him a warning at best. It appeared he was about to ask something but I decided to intervene first.

"This place is dangerous right now. There are orange players headed this way so I suggest you go take a hike and head through that passage over there in the north!" I pushed him through the green hedges with blade in hand while I warned him.

"Huh? W―" I ran through the passage on my right and ignored the player I left behind hoping they'd ignore him while he heeded my warning.

I continued to run through the green hedged maze for a few meters until what seemed to be screams were coming out from the distance. I stopped momentarily thinking if that scream was from the player I met earlier. But then another scream came out with bright blue fragments over the walls of green near me could be seen so my presumptions were only half correct.

I didn't have time to let my curiosity get the best of me. If it really was the player from before, guilt can come later. Right now, I need to survive and get the news of this PoH's plans out. While I ran suppressing my disgust with myself, I turned to the next corner and reached for a «Teleport Crystal» this time but I was suddenly ambushed from the side.

The KoB member jumped above the wall and caught me by surprise. He then grabbed me by the collar of my coat, raised me up and pushed me straight to the wall, making me drop my crystal and lowered my life by a bit. I grunted from the impact and almost had my feet touch the ground from how loose I was from my hooded coat.

A moment later, I didn't realize PoH had appeared and picked up the crystal that was on the ground and pocketed it. He was accompanied by the one from DDA that I kicked earlier and blocked my next path of escape that was beside them. Then two more came out from where I had last passed by. This time, three of them had turned orange since I grazed their earlier attacks.

"Hey, just now, were they our guys?" The leader of the red players asked the ones that just caught up with them.

"I don't know. M-maybe? This map has always been crawling with high level monsters so they may have stepped into their nest accidentally." The one from DDA that was accompanied with a member from the «Laughing Coffin» gave an unsure answer.

One of the other members opened their window and started pressing in a familiar motion. "They're still within the area. They're not dead. Maybe they got stuck in some trap or something and couldn't get out. The burst of polygons must be some monsters they killed after they screamed."

"Then the one with the high leveled tracking skill and the one from «The Force» are out of the fun then? Sigh. How annoying. Never mind the one from The Force but the one with the tracking skill is someone we need in this god-forsaken maze. It's so hard to find people like him these days you know." Their leader retorted.

"But that's because we always end up killing potential members more than actually recruiting them anyways." The one from the red guild spoke with a crooked grin.

"Oh shush. You always spoil the fun part like Johnny does. Did you somehow get it from him?"

I stayed silent as they started to relax, seeing that they trapped me here. He must have referred to «Johnny Black», one of his best lieutenants in the guild. While they joked around, going off topic, a few of them chuckled slightly with them, unsure if they should really laugh as well.

Other than dismissing the blunder of their members as an annoyance, at the very least that meant they didn't find the player I just bumped into earlier, so he was probably safe. It gave me a sense of relief, removing my sense of guilt that I held in.

Getting back to the situation on hand, there was still one more route I could take.

The one passable wall from the right to me and the KoB member.

The problem was that there were a lot of nests around that direction if I remember correctly. I just didn't want to risk going through several impassable hedges after that there and have me end up crossing against some monsters that would sandwich me between these guys.

While they were momentarily distracted, I finally swallowed my indecisiveness and took this chance to take the longer and dangerous route beside me.

I slowly raised my hand so that they wouldn't notice. A plus and minus sign opened and pressed the minus sign to quickly unequip the coat I was barely hanging on. The coat then turned to polygons and a small chime sound alerted me to indicate that my coat is now in my inventory.

The sudden action caught them all off guard so I landed with a lowered stance and kicked the KoB's legs to make him trip. Before the KoB could fall to the ground I instantly ran through the passable greenery and picked up my speed a second later.

Without the hood, my armor and stealthiness the coat offered is lowered a bit but my speed is increased. I didn't have the time to open the window and re-equip it so I ran through the maze without it.

"OI! GET BACK HERE!" I could clearly see them chase me towards the hedges while they yelled at me. I then made another turn to the left and could clearly see that this long corridor had impassable walls again that would lead to a large circular clearing with several passages. I decided to take this route to avoid monsters but that would mean I would also enter a 'safe area' but would leave me wide open from these guys.

While entering the said clearing, I turned my head as I saw that they were all slowly closing in my tail. The member from Laughing Coffin charged up a throwing skill that covered his dagger in a bright pink glow and prepared himself as he aimed it towards me.

Before he could throw the dagger, this time we all stopped ourselves in the center of the circular clearing and turned to another scream from the corner where we just came from and bright blue fragments appeared after a moment's pause. The weapon's glow faded as the owner was interrupted by the distraction just now.

We all stayed silent first until one of them broke off from the daze and asked. "Huh? Hey, aren't we missing someone again? Was that just now an attack from a group of monsters again?"

The last remaining KoB member asked at the group at large. I realized that he was right. I didn't notice at first because they were chasing me but one from DDA this time was gone. The strange thing was I didn't notice any monsters from my senses. Because of my high level tracking, I could sense if there were even if it was the chameleon like things I reminded myself earlier.

"Kah! Let's just get it over with and finally kill this girl!" The sharp and sneery voice came from the Laughing Coffin member that was about to throw his dagger. Before the leader could speak out, he charged his weapon again to throw it at me.

I wasn't scared at the damage their weapons would throw but the effects they would possess. The reason why the infamous red guild, «Laughing Coffin» was feared by was that one of their methods of killing their victims was paralyzing them and then torturing them till their HP reaches zero.

I braced myself to dodge a pink glowing weapon but was instead passed by a silver blaze beside my bushy haired covered face from behind.

_STAB! _A clear sound of a blade piercing flesh echoed around us.

"GYAHHHH!" The white thing that blurred by me struck the dagger user in the chest near his weapon, instantly canceling his skill. While the orange player fell down from the impact on his chest, everyone including me stared at the strange white phenomenon that's impaled onto the red player's chest.

The object's long blade was colored in silvery-white designed similar to a claymore and had a short handle wrapped in brown leather so it was clearly a one handed long sword. I've seen this weapon being monster drops in the front lines a few months back so I was able to tell that this weapon was nearing its purpose.

We could clearly see that the downed player's life bar had been a good portion taken from that attack but was slowly getting lower to the red zone so the weapon had clearly piercing damage on it.

While we all stared at the momentary scenario, we heard footsteps coming from the distance. Still paralyzed of what just happened, everyone slowly turned their gazes at the direction behind me. I slowly turned my head to look at the direction they were all looking at but was cut short by a greeting from a deep monotonous voice directed to the ones in front of me.

"In total, I'm guessing seven guys against one girl huh? I don't approve of such misbehavior so would you all stop this nonsense especially when you guys are obviously orange players." I felt the ominous presence slowly getting closer to me. I don't know what was going on anymore so I simply stood there still in my guard, frozen.

When the player passed by my side and stepped in front of me, I could remember that it was something I just recently saw. The player had a red coat that's designed with gold trimmings and with a hood on. His cursor was still green seeing that he attacked an orange player, allowing him to be exempted by the ethic code's automatic response. I was removed from my paralyzed state from the new shock in front of me and couldn't hold my disbelief.

"EH?! A-aren't ya that Akai-bou I bumped into earlier?" I couldn't help but use my usual playful voice and point at him in surprise. My feeling of an ominous presence was instantly dispelled and was replaced with a question of surprise.

"_Akaibou_? What's that? Anyways, I just couldn't ignore what you said earlier and I can't just turn a blind eye to a person in need of help." This time, rather than the pressing voice earlier, it felt a bit more relaxed. I also felt that he smiled with confidence even though his face was covered with the hood which was hard for me to see.

Was it just my imagination earlier? Maybe it was just the tension I developed from my unfortunate encounter with the red guild in front of me?

"Ho~? Confident aren't you? How can you say that when you can clearly see you are extremely outnumbered plus your weapon is still stuck on my friend's chest?" The leader, PoH asked in a playful tone, slightly indicating his exotic sounding voice.

They all laughed at the red hooded player's obvious mistake. They were right. There were a number of mistakes the player just made now but mostly the reason why they laughed was that even if he re-equipped himself, it would take time and would leave him wide open. And even if he was able to successfully equip himself, had high enough stats and me supporting him, we are still outnumbered with the odds of 2 against 4 players with the off chance of their three missing friends getting back on the action.

While I gritted my teeth and hoped quite deeply that a passing miracle would appear, I didn't notice the player in front of me had suddenly held two swords in his hands. Even though I was momentarily distracted with my own thoughts, I was somehow able to make out what he actually did.

His hands were covered with blue glowing sticks of light and were instantly replaced by those swords he is holding in an instant. The blue light might be the animation frame of materializing items from your inventory but since when did he open his window?

It seems that I wasn't the only one who saw this. We were all in surprise but then shortly after the group of red players started laughing out loud again.

I almost didn't understand why they laughed again until I shifted my eyes towards to what they were laughing at.

I looked more closely and suddenly understood why as well. First was that they were laughing at the weapons what my supposed savior were holding. The second was why was he _**wielding**_ two weapons.

I understood the first since the weapons were both clearly single handed generic long swords that you can first buy in the 36th floor's NPC shops after the gate there was opened. I knew these weapons since I handed out information for some of my customers of that particular sword before during the twenty-something floors.

Those weapons were clearly not strong enough to beat these players even if they were both reinforced to the highest enhancement and would be broken by the more powerful weapons these players held.

Other than the status of his weapons, the second reason was considered more ridiculous especially because of how lame he looked as he held one sword in each hand.

Dual wielding weapons weren't actually much of a big deal but it doesn't mean it was very easy to accomplish either.

It was known that knives, daggers, quatars or even the short axes were even possible if you can put effort into learning both right and left handed skills. But the known impossibility for dual wielding weapons was dual wielding swords, indicating the limit of dual wielding longer or heavier class weapons like spears, pikes and battle axes.

The only player that I found out that learned to have such a skill had to be a certain friend of mine as well. Of course, him not knowing or how I have acquired such information will never see the light of day.

But despite those facts and even though I couldn't really see beyond that hood, I was able to tell that he kept his smile of confidence, ignoring their trouncing laughter.

They all noticed his confidence and stopped laughing but still kept their smirking expressions.

The one stabbed by the red hooded player's sword, staggeringly stood up showing that the weapon's weight was too heavy for the probably AGI type orange player.

"_Hiiiiiii-! You bastard!_ _I'm going to take my time torturing your sorry ass!_" He hissed at the red hooded player with a more shrill sounding tone while trying to keep his balance.

"Heeh..." the acting savior hummed in a taunting tone and continued. "Let's see if you can say that when you are inside that black prison, orange player." He provoked the laughing coffin member and was replied with another sneering hiss.

Great. He just provoked them even more. We're going to have a hard time getting out of this situation.

I decided to unsheathe my dagger slowly to not incite any sudden movements while they slowly tried to position themselves as well.

They all tried to surround us carefully so that they won't leave any openings for us. The remaining KoB member was around seven to eight meters to our left while the DDA member was to our right in around the same distance. The two laughing coffin members were directly to our front in the same manner but the injured dagger user was about 3 meters behind their leader who was standing perfectly still in front of us.

No matter how you saw it, we had the chance to run if things go smoothly but the red hooded player in front of me didn't even budge. It was like he was waiting for something.

While I evaluated this as they slowly moved to their desired positions, the dagger user took this chance to take out the silvery-white sword on his chest so that the piercing damage would stop and recover while we'll be busy fighting for our lives.

I started to wonder where he got all this confidence from, but just when the dagger user started to reach out for the handle to pull the blade out, the red hooded player suddenly launched himself forward, catching me and the others around us by surprise.

The red hooded player's sudden action made the surrounding orange players leap forward, making them initiate an attack as well.

The KoB member used some kind of large looking stiletto the size of a sword. He charged up his skill and launched a stabbing attack similar to how he would use to a rapier. At the same time, the DDA had a short spear with a blade similar to a _Makura Yari_ and charged with a downward slash.

Even after with everyone's surrounding attack, this was proven useless in front of my heroic savior.

Another stabbing sound was heard as another sword the size of a bayonet pierced through the DDA's lower right leg which caused him to stumble and fall to his side, instantly decreasing his life by almost twenty-five percent.

After taking down the DDA member, he charged right passed the KoB member in a blur with a mix of pink and red. Remarkably, the red hooded player dodged the incoming attack of the KoB member in a blazing speed, making his way through them, causing his current opponent to overshoot and stumble to the ground.

The sudden speed may have made him dodge the attack and allowed himself to go straight towards the next orange player but he slowed down too late making him land just in front of PoH, leaving his side open for an attack.

The leader of the red guild lunged forward in order to take this opportunity and activated a green glow on his weapon to launch an upward angled attack. My face lit in despair as the axe looking dagger aimed itself straight towards the hooded player's neck.

With unimaginable skill, the red hooded player slightly tilted his head to the side and dodged the screaming green light, almost grazing the skin of his neck. The movement of my current savior was so fluid, that it almost looked like it was all staged.

As my previous doubts of the red hooded player's capabilities were washed away, the hooded player continued to move forward, ignoring the red guild leader's attack. But this time, rather than leaping, he had put more effort onto his legs, launching him towards the dagger user who was in a daze from the events just now.

It was when the dagger user realized he was a priority chosen by the red hooded player. To be more accurate it was the weapon still obviously lodged to his chest.

The impaled Laughing Coffin member snapped back to reality due to the surprising events, causing him to panic while trying to get the sword off of his chest. The red hooded player continued on and flipped the handle of his sword to a backhand and turned sideways, causing him to stop just in front of his own sword that's still lodged on the last orange player.

The hooded player then grabbed the handle and kicked the orange player with his right leg, launching his temporary sheath to be thrown backwards, lowering the orange player's HP to the red zone.

In the same instance, the red hooded player blocked the attack from the red guild's leader with the generic weapon in his left hand, causing it to shatter.

I started to notice that his fighting style felt somewhat strange. Under normal circumstances, the weapon shouldn't shatter easily even with the overwhelming advantage.

I then remembered a skill that one of my most favored clients used. It was an outside system skill called «Weapon Break». From what I remembered, the trick wasn't the skill itself since the skill only applies the amount of damage correctly, but rather more on aiming the skill at the weapon's weak point.

There weren't many players who use this skill openly since it's almost useless in a straight forward battle but other than that black haired client of mine, this red hooded savior used it openly as well.

I almost didn't see through that block but if my assumptions are correct, he purposely shifted his weapon in that manner so that PoH's applied skill would successfully hit his weapon's weak point, indirectly making PoH use weapon break with his own launched skill.

I started to wonder again why he would allow his own weapon to shatter until the red hooded player answered my questions with his next few moves.

PoH was actually taken by surprise by the sudden force of the shattered weapon and caused him to pull himself back. The red hooded player used the shattering of virtual steel as a distraction to launch his newly recovered weapon aimed at PoH's chest.

Unfortunately, PoH was able to recover quickly enough so that he could raise his weapon and block the counter-attack, causing him to fly backwards from the full force of the strike.

The leader of the red guild landed on his knees and used his lowered form to slide through the dirt, stopping him about ten meters away from me.

Silence suddenly accompanied the growing cloud of dust (that strangely seemed to try and catch up from the intense speed of the events) beneath the feet of the two players in no more than eight seconds.

A moment later, I started to realize that I was caught by the sudden pace that the hooded player made. It didn't even cross my mind to actually assist him in the fight. No- more like I did think of assisting him, but I was too engrossed by the display of his skills rather than the severity of the situation.

The three other orange players that were taken down earlier continued to lie down and simply stayed in awe as well and I quickly understood that they were also caught by surprise by the unexpected feat the red player had displayed.

Calling him_ Akai-bou_ doesn't fit my image of him anymore. His image would most likely fit to be a _Yuusha-bou_ like how he just saved me, a damsel at distress.

"Pfft." I couldn't help but suppress a laugh from my thoughts. Thankfully nobody noticed my reaction so I wouldn't call all the attention to me this time. Due to my sudden change of thoughts, I was able to relieve myself and evaluate the situation clearly rather than being dragged by the pressure of it all.

I redirected myself to where everyone was staring again and once more caught myself in the event. But as we all stared at the red hooded player, he slowly stood up from his lowered stance and kept his recovered sword pointed at PoH.

Yuusha-bou, the newly appointed name I decided to call him, faced towards the red guild's leader so I can now distinctively see the shape of his face. Judging from his mature voice and how young he looked, he might be around in his early twenties. I could also clearly see the golden glow of his auburn colored eyes that is half covered by his red hood as they locked on to PoH and the rest.

"So, are we still going to continue or are you all going to give up and go that nice black castle down in the first floor? I hear it's pretty nice there in this time of year."

My savior added a little joke to go in with his request for surrender but the leader of the opposing group couldn't help but replied in a haughty tone.

"Nah, we're quite busy today. Maybe you'd like to take our place instead, hero-kun? Especially with the color of your red coat, it would go quite nicely with the black schemed walls of the castle. We'll even invite you a good curator."

"Sadly, I can't. I think there's a requirement for the invitation. You all have the qualifications for the invitations so don't hold back and go." My red hooded savior decided to end the ridiculous exchange of sarcasm with by returning to his previously serious tone.

My red covered savior was obviously pointing out to the orange colored player cursors our opponents had.

Still not giving up, the leader clicked his tongue in annoyance and decided to finish this quickly. PoH slowly stood up while he stood on his guard. The three other members noticed this and staggered while trying to recover themselves.

The DDA member slowly removed the sword that's impaled on his leg and threw it aside. The dagger user from the Laughing Coffin grunted while trying to stand up since he took most of the hits. The KoB member wasn't severely injured so he stood up faster than the rest but still swayed a little.

Why are they still resisting? I thought in my mind.

Unless they want to get themselves killed by this player as ridiculous as it sounds, I don't think they would really stand a chance against him. Even if they surround him, I think PoH is the only one who can stand toe-to-toe fighting against―

My thoughts stopped for a moment as soon as I realized their plan. Their original target was me.

Did my savior just make a huge mistake by taking them head on and allowed them to surround us or is it that I was the one who made the mistake and didn't try to follow through?

I should've paid more attention at hand and leaped towards the enemy with him and aided his assault in bringing these people down. But because I was too caught up in surprise, I left myself open so they can just stall him while the rest can just gang up on me.

I can fight against one or two of them if given the chance but _winning_ against them is an entirely different topic.

Before I realized it, PoH and the rest made their moves. Unexpectedly, the KoB member and the injured dagger user dashed towards the red hooded figure while the previously impaled DDA member and PoH dashed towards me.

I didn't expect PoH to direct himself against me so I desperately tried to prepare myself in hopes of holding out long enough for my savior to help me like he did earlier but what I half expected what the rest would do especially the previously impaled dagger user.

It seems the dagger user wanted to take on the red hooded savior himself despite how dangerously low his life is due to his earlier experience.

I felt time slowed down for a moment when I momentarily looked towards my savior. He lowered his sword and was just standing perfectly still but I somehow noticed him mumbling something from the movements of his lips.

I tried to piece together in my mind what he was trying to say but I was already at close proximity between my two assailants so I decided to concentrate on my situation at hand.

I saw a faint green glow coming from PoH's lower right side of his poncho.

I saw through what I deducted to be his incoming surprise attack and decided to use one of my skills called «Viper Bite», a lesser but more powerful version of «Rapid Bite» with a two consecutive hit dagger skill that uses two high speed thrusts with both piercing and push-back factor, and use a «Horizontal» so that I can quickly defend myself from the next attack due to the short lag after using the first skill.

My dagger glowed in a bright yellow-green color as I first aimed it towards PoH who was closest to me to start my defense.

My first thrust launched itself as the system started taking over the movement of my body and aimed it at PoH.

Just when my attack had hit the leader of the red guild, my attack was suddenly cut short which was mixed with my current opponent's previously hidden glowing weapon.

I realized that my blade was stopped by PoH's glowing dagger which was supposed to be his surprise attack.

_Well this sucks._

I cursed myself in realizing that the surprise attack was actually a feint to force me to go into the defense and use counter offensive skills.

I already started the skill and the system won't allow me to stop unless my posture was interrupted by an obstacle or an attack which leaves me in a bad position.

This trap left me no choice but to watch myself get controlled by the system and take the beating head-on.

The surprise-turned-counter tossed my first attack to another direction, causing my second strike to overshoot, making me lean forward and threw me off balance.

At this same instance, I received a kick to the gut by the DDA member which was strong enough to send me flying in mid-air.

My vision went blurred for a moment from the critical hit he just made but I noticed PoH's weapon was still glowing even after my weapon was deflected and suddenly made a sharp 90° turn, creating a clear line towards my face.

The attack was called «Axial Shift», a variant of «Vertical Arc» and a two hit combo attack that's supposed to strike the target from the side with a stab and slash forward after a short delay. I knew this skill since it's a skill you can learn in a quest meant for those who uses short bladed weapons.

The attack sliced through the right side of my cheek and made its way through the rest of the side of my face. This attack threw me into the air a little more and was thrown backwards.

I grit my teeth as I felt time had slowed down for a moment while I was in mid-air. This further increased my dread when I somehow saw the DDA member already launching a «Fell Crescent» above me.

"一?!"

Before I could let anything out I received the exploding lightning-type single handed sword skill had hit me point blank and shot me like a rocket right to the ground which made me bounce around like a rag doll.

As I finally had hit the floor flat after bouncing away, I saw that my HP was still slowly going down and was in the red zone and was paralyzed.

My stat build wasn't the type to take such hits even if I wore my hooded coat and their levels are way higher than mine so it was pretty understandable that my HP would end up this low with a combo like that.

My vision was further blurred and was breathing hard from the combined attacks the two orange players made. I couldn't bring myself to stand up so I continued to lie down and stared at my two blurry assailants while my vision started to slowly gain focus.

I could barely see now in the background from my two incoming assailants that a red figure was trying his best to fight against the other two players while trying to get to me and not killing his opponents at the same time.

_Worry about yourself first you idiot._

I complained to him in my head. I realized that his fighting style earlier was not meant to eliminate his targets but to take them down without killing them unlike a PKer would.

My two assailants were now slowly walking towards me with their evil grins. The DDA member, who was now the nearest to me stepped on my back while PoH, who was standing behind him, knelt down and said

"That was a great show miss rat and I'd love to see more but unfortunately we have to draw the curtains to a close since the hero over there will have his role end soon."

As soon as PoH finished, the DDA member kicked my side to turn my front side facing them.

A pink glow emitted from the DDA member's spear and sadistically aimed it at my head, launching the attack towards my face to increase the damage.

I stared at the sharp tip of the blade and was showered my vision in bright light.

_I'm sorry Ki-bou, I know you've looked out for me even if it was just for a short time but thanks anyways. And thanks for trying to save me yuusha-bou, despite how freakishly skilled you are. Looks like I'll have to leave this world first…_

...or so I thought.

A crouching red figure was suddenly in front of me and was the one who received the end of the attack.

The DDA member's short spear was stopped with a new sword on my savior's hand. Yuusha-bou then crossed his new set of blades and blocked the additional attack from PoH.

My two assailants were caught off guard which caused them to pull back and retreat a fair distance away. This gave us a chance to catch our breaths and swallow the sequence of surprises that just happened in less than 5 minutes.

My red hooded savior slowly stood up and decided to finally end everything.

"I'll give you one last chance to give up. There's only the two of you left. Either you willingly comply or I throw you in myself. Your choice."

He already took down the other two?!

While I was still stunned, I was able to follow PoH's movement as he turned his head slowly to the direction my savior had previously fought.

In the distance, the two other players Hero-bou had fought earlier were both on the ground. The KoB member and the Laughing Coffin member were now both pinned down on the ground with...

Swords? A lot of swords?

I somehow managed to let out a "Fuehh?" to the sight before me.

The dangerously low-lifed orange player, who was lying face flat on the ground, had only a few dots removed from his HP bar and had two swords each pierced on his clothing to lock down his movements. The KoB member was lying down in a similar fashion but had lesser armor than before and had his back side on the ground which clearly showed his perplexed face.

I couldn't make out what PoH's expression was due to his poncho's hood but I can clearly tell he is at a loss for words as well.

Our silence caused the remaining DDA member to carelessly look in the direction we were looking at and gaped at the sight which caused him to panic.

"Shit! What the hell is- Wha do we do boss?!"

The DDA member whispered in a panicked voice, asking PoH whether they should consider my red hooded savior's proposal. PoH on the other hand was as calm as ever but had a hint of confusion on his face.

PoH and my red hooded savior stared each other down so the tension that was already in the area was now concentrated on the two.

Everyone went silent for a few seconds but as soon as the tension grew too much PoH clicked his tounge and said "This sucks" in English with perfect accent.

"Sorry hero-kun, but I'll be taking my leave first."

The red hooded swordsman immediately took action and dashed straight towards PoH but what the poncho wearing orange player did next took my red hooded savior by surprise.

A red trail of light was seen as PoH suddenly stabbed his own ally at the back and threw him to the side. The DDA member's life was now in the red and was rapidly decreasing probably due to the dagger must've had high piercing damage.

PoH distanced himself immediately from his fallen ally and said his parting words to my red hooded savior. "Despite the colorful show you presented, it's clear that you want to avoid killing anyone in this game."

"You一!"

"Save him or chase after me, whatever you choose, you lose, hero."

As soon as PoH finished with a sly grin, he leaned himself against a part of the stone wall that merged with the green hedged walls and... and opened a rotating a trap door?

Damn. I forgot about those. They were so few and hard to find plus the danger they presented that I pushed my thoughts of using them at the back of my mind.

What made those traps so dangerous was that they lead you through an open but short «Anti-Crystal Field» and through another trap door for an exit.

Just when my red hooded savior was screaming for the red guild's leader to stop, he started reaching just above his shoulder much like how he would reach for a一

Something from his back suddenly started glowing and as his outstretched hand quickly reached to grasp whatever it was, a sword materialized itself, like how you would equip yourself with a weapon.

Is that a unique skill?!

BOOOOOOOOM!

Air exploded behind the sword, leaving behind a trail of screaming steel. The hooded player launched(threw) the weapon with great force like a rocket and was aimed towards PoH.

Despite having half of PoH's face covered by his poncho, I could make out his expression was clearly of surprise when he realized the rocket like sword was headed towards him as he panicked hurriedly to hide behind the trap door.

But despite the sudden miracle added with the insane speed of the sword, it still wasn't enough. The sword almost grazed PoH and instead hit the gap between the stone slab between the trap door and it's hinges, popping out an «Immortal Object» warning while leaving the door slightly open.

"Damn!"

My savior cursed at his delayed reaction as the sword instantly shattered to pieces, being unable to withstand the digital wall's closing heavy pressure.

My red hooded savior shifted himself and immediately ran to the already dying DDA member, pushing aside his mistake.

"Are you all right?" My red hooded savior immediately asked while he pulled out the blade that had been pierced behind the orange player. The continuous damage reduction had stopped when the blade had been removed, barely leaving a few dots on his HP for the fallen orange player.

The DDA member was confused if he should thank the player they were trying to kill earlier so he simply answered with a nod.

The paralysis effect inflicted on me earlier quietly disappeared as soon as my heroic savior released a deep sigh of relief after barely saving a dying player.

I slowly stood up as I recovered myself and walked towards the knelt hero of the day.

"It seems you're finally alright. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you earlier." The hero apologized while he opened his window and took out rope and a few potions.

"Sorry, but I still have to tie you up." He apologized to the orange player and pressed a button that popped out of the rope.

While the rope immediately wrapped itself around the DDA orange player he turned to me and asked. "I'll tie up the remaining ones here so can you heal the severely injured ones while I get the rest of their friends? It's too dangerous to leave them with very low HP."

The rest?

Ah. Did he meant the others that disappeared? Now that he mentioned it, I do remember them checking through their window if they were still alive or not.

"N-Nn. Okay." I nodded and followed his instructions and decided to ask whatever questions later after we deal the orange players here.

After tying up the rest and gathered them in the center, I started with the DDA member and held the potion near his mouth. The orange player in front of me had second thoughts and decided to accept the offer.

The red HP bar of the DDA member had started to change it's hue as it grew slowly indicating the level of his life. The hooded player started to relax himself and left to pick up the rest of the players that was part of the attack earlier.

A few minutes had past and the red hooded player returned with three of the orange players tied to each other while I got to finish healing around half of everyone's HP.

Compared to the ones I healed, the players were knocked out and had at least one missing arm or leg. I was surprised at the pitiful sight since it's already hard enough to cut of even a finger from a player.

_Ah so those shattered blue polygons back then were their limbs._ I thought to myself from the revelation.

I would've felt sorry for these guys but since they tried to kill me earlier, I dropped the feeling immediately. Losing an arm or a leg or even a finger isn't permanent anyway since you'd be able to recover them just by completely healing yourself. But it would be a different story if you'd lose both your arms.

The conscious orange-cursored trio beside me had quite the normal reaction but less life in it. They were having a hard time trying to believe what just happened so their eyes were wide open, clearly showing surprise, but can't say anything due to their exhaustion.

"I only healed half of their HP just in case they try to resist again." I reported cautiously as soon as he set down the rest of the orange players with the ones I was guarding.

"Is that so? That's fine then. Thanks for the hard work." He replied sheepishly.

_But you did most of the hard work ya idiot. _I complained in my thoughts rather than voicing it out, deciding to be careful with myself.

After tying the whole group together, he pulled out a «Teleport Crystal» from his pocket. He then faced towards me and asked. "I'll bring these guys to the «Black Iron Castle» down the 1st floor. Are you going to be fine by yourself here?"

That question irked me somehow so I replied flatly, hiding my annoyance to his question.

"I think I can handle myself just fine Yuusha-bou," I defended myself despite the fact that I was beaten-up, paralyzed and almost died just a few minutes ago.

"Furthermore, I'd like to ask some questions… _in private_." I emphasized the last part with a deeper tone, hinting to him that I didn't want anyone else to hear.

The red hooded hero thought deeply with a 'hmm' for a short whether he should allow me such an opportunity to interrogate him for whatever reasons that came to mind.

After giving it a thought, he finally decided and replied with a nod. "I'm okay with it, but I can't promise that I can answer every question you may ask though."

I paused for a second and decided that I shouldn't be picky at the moment.

"That's fine with me." I assume he is willing to give me some answers but I won't doubt that they will all be limited in a way. So I may have to either pay through Coll, which may be unlikely especially with the aura of a saint he is giving off, or through trading, information for information.

The red hooded figure pulled out another rope from his window and bounded the group of orange players to the statue in the center of this clearing.

"Sorry, this won't take long."

He apologized to the orange players and walked towards the edge of this clearing with the nearest exit. I followed my red hooded savior and finally sheathed my «Hurit-Kimi Edge» to its scabbard from behind my cloak.

As soon as we reached the edge of the clearing, the red hooded figure stopped to turn around and asked first. "To be frank, I'd like to keep things simple. So, what do you wanna know?"

My savior dropped a sweat of anxiety at his declaration so I decided to answer with confidence. "Straight to the point huh? Ma~. At least I don't need to waste any effort in trying to come up with roundabout excuses. But there's something important that you've forgotten yuusha-bou."

The still-red-hooded figure tilted his head in question so I took the liberty in answering it first for him.

"I…" I paused for a moment and felt a prickling sensation somewhere in my chest. I hesitated for a moment and gathered my thoughts. The action made my red hooded savior curious but decided to wait until I would finish what I was trying to say first.

What's wrong with me? Why am I so adamant in thanking him in saving my life?

I tried to relax myself and decided to ignore the annoying feeling in my chest. "I still haven't thanked you for what you did earlier. You saved my life several times only a few minutes ago so I have to do that at least."

I bowed deeply and finally let out a sigh in my mind but the small irritating feeling in me is still there.

"Ah! No there's no need to thank me. I'm just happy that I could help when I could." He waved his hands in embarrassment and gave a small smile.

His expression suddenly shifted to a serious one, indicating that he still wasn't finished. "Other than them obviously calling him their «boss», I assume he's their leader since his guild logo indicated a «Laughing Coffin» insignia so the problem of his escape still exists."

Of course, calling him «boss» didn't mean that he was designated by the system as a «Floor Boss» but rather the loose term people would call a leader. I wouldn't really want to imagine that guy being an actual floor boss even if the system made an enemy A.I. similar to him.

Getting back on topic, the red hooded player is right. PoH escaping means that he is still a danger to all the other players that are stuck here in the virtual world of Aincrad. If I can track him down and bring an end to his misdeeds, the worst that could happen would be the power struggle between the minor PK guilds.

While I pondered what I should do next, the red hooded player in front of me decided to interrupt my thoughts.

"I think it would be best if you come with me after all." I dropped my concentration and turned my head. "It's still too dangerous to travel by yourself with what happened today, especially when that guy is still running around."

I would've labeled him suspicious but it's obviously clear that he's someone people can trust. I opened my equipment window and wore the «Reba's Coat» that I favored since the 1st floor with the hood down and simply smiled to show my appreciation of his offer.

* * *

(Aincrad, Algade 50th floor, Agil's Shop; October 2024)

"So that's what happened!"

The tall American near the corner of the room exclaimed while looking at the holographic video replay in front of him.

"Yeah. But you don't have to be that excited about it", reacting sheepishly.

After Ki-bou and Asu-shi left, we talked a bit and Agil told me a lot of stuff of how he first met the person in question. And since he told me valuable info, I decided to show Agil-shi a recording of how I met the rumored "White Swordsman" to be fair with him.

"Honestly, I don't know whether I should be amazed that you have one of those rare «Memory Recording Crystals» or the fact how you met the guy… or both."

I kept myself quiet to avoid further embarrassment. Showing him this video was already embarrassing as it is.

"Well, this video answered quite a lot of questions for me. The disappearance of PoH, how they knew of the _crusade,_ and how he got the damned sword he made me join in his quests."

"Or when the person he was supposed to meet after that dungeon was you." I added loosely while grinning a bit.

Agil-shi offered a smirk in return until he stated something I regretted to instigate from him.

"Or when he princess-carried you that one time when he jumped off that giant tree during a quest. Though I didn't take you'd be the type to like older men. I'm quite worried now especially for myself."

"THAT….!" I replied in a fluster, trying to avoid his absurd claim.

"I'm not into older men! And why the hell would I be interested in people like you?! I prefer the cool, dark and…" I stopped midway, realizing I was about to spill my personal preferences to some old geezer.

The dark bald shopkeeper was trying hard to hold his laughter as he looked away from amusement.

I started to calmed down and made a big sigh.

"That was a big one. You okay? I was just messing with you you know." The giant foreigner asked without a hint of concern to our problem at hand.

"You know, you could at least pretend to be worried. You had me doing most of the work." I slumped down on the chair pouting, almost lying down with my legs lazily sprawled to the ground, showing less finesse a girl my age shouldn't show.

"Well, that's your job isn't it? That kid simply offered that we discuss it someplace more private. Sometimes, I think that he thinks he owns the place." He growled on his last sentence, showing his annoyance to his friend's unofficial ownership of his own hard earned player bought store/home.

I no longer gave any reaction to Agil-shi's comments due to my loss of interest. The discussion earlier made me too exhausted and unable to think anymore except for one thing.

In order to make my mind relax a little easier, I decided to ask the tall, dark and bald player the one thing that's bothering me.

"Umm, Agil-shi."

"Hm? What's wrong?" The player who is still standing at the edge of the room caught my serious expression despite my lax position.

"D-do you think we did the right thing?"

I suddenly dropped the question that may have been bothering the both of us since those two arrived, no, since the time we have met the two players involved. Agil-shi paused for a moment and closed his eyes in thought.

"Hmm... that," Agil-shi paused, trying to find the right words to answer my question. After some careful thought, his face became stern, indicating his final choice of words.

"That is a pointless question if you ask me."

"Huh? What do you-" His answer caught me by surprise. It was something I didn't expect to hear from Agil-shi.

"It's not that it's pointless but rather it's better for us not to think too much about it." The merchant paused for a bit to find the right words. "Well, it's what we thought was right at the time. I'm sure you could clearly see something is definitely wrong with Shirou and we aren't strong enough to help him. Not in strength or stats but "the strength" in personality perhaps."

* * *

"He~h, to think you're in the mood of picking up girls at this time of day, yuusha-bou." I grinned at him mischievously and reached out my hand. "My name's Argo, an information broker. Nice ta meet ya, mysterious red hooded hero."

"Uwahh. Please don't joke around like that. If my girlfriends back at the real world heard you say that, I'm more than gonna get an ear full from them."

The hero lowered his hood, revealing his more brightly defined traits. His skin was darker than what I've expected so it matched his red-slightly-going-white hair and his golden brown colored eyes.

His looks weren't bad looking but had those round going rough edges around his face, revealing more that his age is probably twice as mine.

I was caught by surprise by his last statement and reached out my hand to shake his in return.

"Anyway, nice to meet you too. You can call me Shirou, swordsman."

"Huh? Girlfriends? Wait. More importantly you mean your name is Shiro as in the color White?"

Did I hear him properly? Did he just call himself «White Swordsman» just like the one from the rumors?

_I mean sure, the rumors stated that «The White Swordsman» is supposed to be a hooded hero who saves people from danger,_

_(I have to admit I was saved just a while ago.)_

_Uses countless numbers of weapons and wields them with both hands,_

_(Okay, he did use a lot of different weapons, even if he did throw most of them when fighting a while ago.)_

_Usually leaves weapons or equipment lying around,_

_(I guess not saying whether half of those weapons were his to begin with.)_

_Doesn't use «sword skills» when facing against multiple enemies,_

_(I guess fighting off all these players rather than monsters count.)_

_But other than not using skills, he possesses what people think is a «unique skill»._

_(Magically appearing flying rocket swords…)_

"..."

My head hurts. I think I need to re-evaluate all this.

While I rubbed my head to relieve the stress my mind suffered, the probably rumored white swordsman corrected my assumptions.

"No no, you got it all wrong. It's Shirou. S-H-I-R-O-U, Shirou. Isn't it common to add your err, class as you'd call it, after your name? Here, I'll add you in my friends contact list."

A purple message popped out with a «SHIROU wants to be friends with you.» with an «Accept» and «Decline» button.

You're kidding right? There's no job class in this game. If my hunch is correct, he might be… nah. Couldn't be.

"Ah, I'm sorry. My mistake. I thought you were someone I knew online." I pressed the «Accept» button and a new small message appeared with a «You are now friend with SHIROU.»

I felt something was off with this but it looks like he's not lying either. I'll have to look into this a bit deeper later. Rumors _are_ never quite accurate.

"Well, regarding your earlier offer, thanks, but no thanks. I'll be fine on my own for now, you just scared off the leader of the most infamous guild in Aincrad you know."

I declined his earlier offer while I brought out my hooded coat, equipping while turning my back from him.

I am «Argo the Rat». An information broker. I'm supposed to work alone.

"Alright. I won't force you if you don't want to. Well, we'll be on our separate ways then."

"Ah, let me give you something in return for saving my life first." I took out a «Data Cube» and handed it out to him.

"I noticed you broke a lot of your own swords so I'll give you something that can be very useful to you. I'm sure it won't break as easily as the one you used earlier. I was thinking of giving this to a certain client of mine but I'll give this to you instead."

"Ah, you don't need to if it's that important."

"No, I truly believe you deserve this. Besides, I find it stupidly wasteful for spending your col on dozens of cheap breakable swords. Here. This cube will tell you all that there is to know to acquire this rare weapon."

Shirou-shi paused for a moment and looked at me with a serious expression. Compared to the cold look when in battle, you can feel the comforting feel of concern he is trying to give.

"Okay. I'll accept your kind offer. So, what is this certain weapon you are trying to give me?"

"According to the details given by an old woman NPC, it's a weapon from an angelic looking being with wings of steel. You can read it's detailed history there in the cube so I'll skip that detail."

"So, do you know the name of the weapon?" Shirou-shi asked out of curiosity.

"Yes, I believe it's called the «Judicator»"

* * *

_References and Fun Facts:_

_-The title for this chapter was inspired after one of Aesop's fables, The Wolf and the Fox before Judge Ape.  
__-To be more specific, the chapter title is actually inspired from the book called The Labyrinth of Versailles which is also one of Aesop's fables.  
__-Argo's weapon, +25 «Hurit-Kimi Edge» is a non-canon weapon I made up for this story. It's name was based on a Native American-Indian name for foxes. The name Hurit means 'beautiful' while Kimi means 'secret'.  
__-PoH's weapon, «Bardalph Phantom Blade» is also a non-canon weapon I made up and it's name was based on Old English names for wolves. The name Bardalph means 'ax wolf'.  
__-For those who have seen my concept art for Aria of Fate, The white sword is also a non-canon weapon that's made up for this story and the weapon's name is called «Judicator» from the word 'to judge', also mirroring the rare weapon «Elucidator» from the word 'to explain'.  
__-The silver-white sword Shirou threw here is different to the concept art that I drew and is a lower leveled sword compared to the Judicator.  
__-«Reba's Coat», Reba means 'to tie or bind' in Hebrew and is a name they usually give to rodent like creatures._

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A/N:

Aaaaaand the first Extra Side is out!

Next will be Rin's troubled and tiresome adventure so you'll be hearing some news about the real life events outside of SAO from here.  
The chapters won't be arranged accordingly so don't expect Argo's second chapter yet.

Your reviews are welcome! All Q&A asked in the reviews will be answered in the forums of Aria of Fate: Concept so please refer there for updates, Q&A and some delicious artworks drawn by yours truly. XD

Till next time!


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